RAWALPINDI:
The District Zakat Council has decided to give Rs12,000 each to the zakat deserving families registered in the entire district as an Eid gift in the last ten days of Ramazan in keeping with the Eid festival’s spirit of charity.
Zakat Committee District Chairman will be appointed next week while banks and financial institutions across the country will deduct zakat from the accounts of citizens on the 1st of Ramazan.
Zakat beneficiaries of Rawalpindi district have been deprived of aid money and monthly living allowance for the last 10 months. However, recently, the requests of Zakat committees of 43 districts across Punjab seeking Zakat funds before Eid have been approved.
The government has also decided to reinstate local Zakat Committees. The committees had been dissolved on completion of their term and had not been reinstated since the past year across Punjab due to which deserving people have been continuously deprived of Zakat aid money.
The election of 1,166 local Zakat Committees of Rawalpindi district is likely to be completed in the second week of Ramazan. At present Zakat Committees are run by administrators while deputy commissioners are District Zakat Administrators.
On the upcoming Eid-ul-Fitr, Rs12,000 will be given as an Eid gift to 7,000 deserving families in the Rawalpindi district. Due to the non-availability of zakat funds for the past year, free treatment of patients eligible for zakat funds has also remained discontinued in all 17 government and other major hospitals.
Due to the non-availability of funds, operations and dialysis of Zakat Fund patients could not be done in hospitals in the past. Leprosy patients and their families have not been given financial assistance. It is reported that many patients lost their lives while waiting for the promised free treatment.
Similarly, failure to provide eligible families with marriage grants worth Rs 25,000 or scholarships has also impacted the lives of many young children belonging to poor families.
According to sources at the District Zakat Committee, computerised data of all beneficiaries is available. This Eid, gift money will be sent to the beneficiaries’ mobile accounts from EasyPaisa who will be able to claim it wherever they want. The Zakat Department will also cover the EasyPaisa money exchange and retrieval fees.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 12th, 2024.
